Once Burned
by Yincafish
Summary: A one shot moment between Toph and ZUko. Set in A:TLA, Book 3: Fire.


'Err...Hey' Zuko half mumbled as he approached the young blind girl, sitting precariously on the wall of an ornamental fountain, soaking her raw feet in the cool water.

Toph jumped out of her skin.

'Who's there?' she turned sharply to face the rough direction of the voice, face menacing and hands braced firmly in earth fighting stance. Zuko recoiled quickly, shocked at her nervousness.

'It's me! It's me! Zuko!' his hands flew up in front of him, showing his empty palms, but then stammered down realising their uselessness.

'Oh… Sorry Sparky, I er… didn't _see_ you there.' Toph grinned, sliding her feet gingerly back into the water, pulling a sharp inhale of breath through gritted teeth as the liquid engulfed her burnt feet, the water hissed as the red hot skin sank into its depths.

Guilt hit Zuko like a brick wall.

'I'm really sorry Toph. I never meant-'

Toph patted the stone of the wall with one tiny, gritty hand.

'Would you? I like to _see_ who I'm talking to.' She beckoned for Zuko to sit beside her. Zuko thought it through, the contact with the earth was what Toph needed to 'see' with. He nodded- though he didn't know why, it was a wasted gesture, and came to sit beside Toph, angling himself to face her.

'Hey.' She smiled, as he came into contact with the stone wall. A small smile flickered across his face.

'Hey.' He replied.

Toph took a few seconds to register him fully. The _vision _was fuzzy, well her feet were trapped in water. She made out his muscular frame, the marred skin of his left eye and cheek. She laid her palms flat to the cold stone, trying to focus her picture of him; his narrow eyes, chiselled chin… the way his mop of hair draped in front of his face. She smiled to herself, Zuko was very handsome, even when Fuzzy.

'How are your feet?' Zuko broke the silence in a sheepish voice, looking down at the girls blistering feet through the glossy waters.

'Don't Princey. So I got burned, that's what I get for sneaking up on a firebender.'

'Yer but I… If I'd have known it was you I-'

'I get it.'

Zuko still felt guilty. Toph may be an Earth bending master, but she was still a little girl. A blind little girl. His stomach lurched at the fact.

'So how does it work?' he asked.

'Huh?'

'Seeing… with earth bending. I mean, how?'

He met Toph's absent gaze as her sightless eyes turned to him, well almost him, they stayed loosely fixed to a point that seemed just beyond Zuko. He took in her eye's pale, misty appearance properly for the first time. Watched how her pupils stayed lazily still, centred in their whites, unblinking and motionless.

'Well… I can't _see_ you…obviously. But I can see your movements, your presence… Kinda like… you're an extension of the Earth.' Toph's face looked a little puzzled, like she'd never really put it quite into words before.

'But… I guess, I have no real way of knowing what you really do look like. I know what you _look _like… to me….'

Zuko smiled, she wasn't really all that tough little madam she made out.

'I'm still sorry that I burned you Toph. Can you still… _see… _I mean… with your feet burned?'

'It's fuzzy... But getting better. Katara's giving me some healing sessions' she smiled.

'Hey Zuko?' her face shifted to a thoughtful expression.

'Yer?'

'The Earth Kingdom colour is Green right?'

'er…. Yes…' Zuko looked confused at the young girl, and then it hit him, what were colours to Toph?

Toph flushed a little pink, embarrassed at her question, and kicked her feet nervously in the cool fountain.

'I thought so… It…Feels green. I think.' Toph splashed at the ripples in the water, her tiny porcelain feet emerging briefly from the fountain.

Zuko just marvelled at her. Her blindness really was incredible, with or without her Earth bending.

'Do you want some help? You've been sat here some time.' Zuko huffed a side smile, glancing at Toph's pruning feet- they were in fact the cleanest he had ever seen them, stripped of their 'healthy coating of earth', revealing her pale, noble skin.

Toph laughed nervously a little, before answering.

'Actually, that would be great Sparky, I want to try out my freshly healing feet on solid ground for a while.' Her head was bent low as she spoke, making her long fringe shield the majority of her pale features behind the jet curtain of untamed hair, but looking closely, Zuko could make out the impish grin.

'Sure' he smiled. He braced his left arm around Toph's shoulders, letting her wrap a small arm around his neck. His right arm he gently guided beneath her knees, so that he could swiftly lift her from her seated position, holding her tiny, childish frame against his torso.

Toph felt the solid, comforting stone beneath her slide away. Losing her precious contact to the earth sent her whirling into a world of blindness. She gripped to Zuko tightly as she was held above the ground, subconsciously screwing her eyes tight, although it made no difference.

'Are you ok?' Zuko jumped as her sudden clutch to the front of his robes.

'No Earth, No _sight_.' she reminded him, a small tremble running through her hands as she spoke.

'Oh right. Sorry Toph.'

Zuko had the young girl cradled up against his chest, his robes bunched tightly in her tiny porcelain fist. He could feel her shoulders tense up as her feet dangled, lost in the air, anyway from the temples stone floor.

He moved swiftly around, and she flinched with his sudden movement.

'You really are blind aren't you?'

'Jeez Sparky, took you long enough to realise!'

Zuko rolled his eyes and huffed, a slight smile smirking in his lips.

'I'm guessing… your rolling your eyes right?...Am right?'

Zuko laughed at her false excitement.

'Yes Toph.'

'Knew it.' The young earth bender grinned smugly, relaxing her grip momentarily on his robes, until Zuko moved a few paces to clear them from the stone ridge of the fountain. Toph lunged back into his chest, a small shiver running through her tiny frame.

'It's ok.' Zuko gave her shoulder a little squeeze, before transferring her gently to her feet.

Toph winced as the pressure spread through her fragile feet, and shifted carefully to ease the pain. Zuko held her cautiously by her shoulders, kneeling at her side to compensate for height.

'It can't imagine seeing… nothing.' Zuko mused, watching the recognition of the cold solid ground; flood through the girls little body.

'Are you Okay? You shouldn't push it until your burns are healed up.' Zuko slowly released her shoulders, eyeing her up and down, as if she were fragile and may fall at any moment.

Toph spun rather suddenly on her heels, to face him. Panicked Zuko grabbed her around her shoulders once more and braced, ready to catch her. But Toph just stopped. Her eyes were fixed lazily about his torso.

'Toph?'

Her sightless green eyes wandered blindly to his face, following the sound and settling vaguely on the source. She smiled gently, and without a word, she brought a tiny hand up towards his face. Zuko remained still as her left hand came to lie gently upon his untainted right cheek, but flinched uncontrollably when her right mirrored the movement upon his scarred and raw left. He did not allow anyone to touch his scar, never. Not even Mai. But he swallowed back the urge to pull back, and exhaled a controlled, steady breath as the young blind girl gingerly felt the contours of his face. Her fingers grazed the rough surface of his scar, and swept across the smooth planes of his cheek and chin. Toph bowed her head as she finally lowered her hands. Zuko sighed into a smile.

'Well?' he raised a quizzical brow.

Toph just smiled, turning to a slightly more cocky grin before spinning back around and lightly padding away.

'Sugar Queen _was _right.' She mused.


End file.
